An operating method for introducing a rolling stock to be threaded into a roll stand of a rolling mill wherein the rolling mill has a roll stand with working rolls and a control device, the method comprising:
- moving a head of the rolling stock to be threaded toward the roll stand at a rolling stock head speed, wherein the working rolls form a rolling gap,
- before the head of the rolling stock to be threaded enters the rolling gap:
- rotating the working rolls at a circumferential speed that is essentially equal to the speed of the head of the rolling stock, and
- setting the rolling gap in the vertical direction essentially to a thickness of the head of the rolling stock on the inlet side, and
- when or after the head of the rolling stock enters the rolling gap, closing the rolling gap to a predetermined value and, essentially at the same time as the closing of the rolling gap, changing the circumferential speed of the working rolls based on the rolling gap.